U of C marketers ditch tradition in new viewbook

The U of C is in Lincoln Park?

No, not even close. But next year's incoming class can be forgiven if they're led to think that by the College's new promotional booklets.

The College's new pamphlet -- titled "The Shocking Truths' -- contains a photo of Lincoln Park with the caption "Truths about Our Settings." While the accompanying text makes it clear that the U of C remains in Hyde Park, the promotional material is designed to show that the U of C is -- shock of shocks -- a fun place to go to school.

"Our reputation frightens off a lot of people who would be good matches, people who don't think of themselves as towering intellects just yet," said Michael Behnke, University vice president for enrollment.

Since arriving here over a year ago, Behnke has set about changing the way that prospective students see the U of C. Gone are the photos of studious young people in Harper Library and gothic-style building bathed in autumnal sunlight. The College's venerable "Dreams and Choices" viewbook has been replaced by "The Shocking Truths" and a full-length viewbook called "The Life of the Mind".

What was wrong with the old viewbook?

"Dreams and Choices made us look too much like other institutions," Behnke said.

The new booklets are certainly a break with the U of C's traditional image. Of the 12 photographs of students in "The Shocking Truths," only one is of a student reading or studying. The other 11 feature, among other things, students playing in a band, dancing in the C-Shop, juggling on the Quads, and playing football.

The books may confound some longtime students proud of the College's tradition of obsessive studiousness -- the booklet sells high-schoolers on the Scavenger Hunt, coffee-shop poetry slams, "late-night dances," "regular campus visits by big-name bands," and the chance to live in Jimmy Hoffa's Shoreland hotel room.

"Mind" does devote plenty of space to academics, providing broad descriptions of the College's concentrations. But on the first page it reminds students that the Core comprises only a third of their undergraduate education -- reflecting last year's vote to reduce Core requirements -- and assures them that "that figure may be reduced by credit earned through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or placement testing."

In fact, "the Common Core" is not mentioned at all. Instead, it is called the "Core of general studies" and the "Chicago Plan" -- a name Dean of the College John Boyer has hung on the reduced Common Core. The book also argues that "[t]hough Chicago is famous for its Core of general studies, it is through the concentrations that students identify and explore in greater depth a specialization for which they have a compelling passion."

Perhaps the most significant change in "Mind" is that it abandons selling the College as such. In the past, the College has advertised itself as a small, liberal arts college within a major research University. But the phrase "liberal arts" is mentioned only once in the main body of the book, and students in the College are now "undergraduates."

Behnke says that the viewbook's dropping of the College as a selling point reflects a reemphasis on the University as a "major research institution."

"One difference is that we're emphasizing that we're a research University. The College has an identity here, but it's not meaningful to the outside world," he said.

As for the Core, Behnke says that the changes approved last year won't mean a great change in how the College recruits new students.

"We still have, if not the most substantial core curriculum, one of the most substantial. Everything's relative in higher education," said Behnke.

The most important task facing Behnke is increasing the schools applicant pool. Michael Jones, assistant dean of the College, says that "if we had our resources and Northwestern's applicant pool, we'd rank in the top five" -- a reference to U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of national universities. In this year's rankings the U of C remained 14th for the second consecutive year. It has been out of the top ten for four straight years.

The emphasis on the U of C's urban location and revitalized student life are meant to tell high-school seniors that U of C students aren't only about Aristotle and organic chemistry.

"We want them to know that we still love reading our Great Books, but we can go get a beer when we're done," said Philippe Desan, master of the humanities collegiate division.

Behnke agrees: "We want to make it clear that students who come here are relatively normal."

Is the U of C unfriendly to students who want to enjoy themselves? "We have a certain image, and we like that image. But maybe we could soften it a little," Desan said.

Behnke said he's had remarkable success in increasing the College's applicant pool; on-campus interviews are up 50 percent this year already, he said. An increased applicant pool is important because the more applicants the College has to pick from, the more selective it can be; last year, the College accepted 62 percent of all applicants.

Andrew Abbott, former master of the Social Sciences collegiate division, doubts the effectiveness of marketing strategies in general.

"I am not persuaded that there is any good research on how kids make their decision. My guess is kids are sending messages out -- to parents, to friends, to neighbors -- about who they are. It's a stake in a local identity game," he said. "All marketing stuff about universities is pretty frothy, but I think kids and parents know that."

Abbott says he worries about the College "defending its niche," especially since "college is just less consequential in the lives of elite youngsters these days.

"The real issue is there's a sea change going on with credentials inflation. It's now the case that a large portion of society is getting undergraduate degrees. Where you get your graduate school degree then is more consequential to elite students," he said.

Abbott said that by succumbing to what social scientists call "coercive isomorphism" -- a fancy term for peer pressure -- the University risks losing the elite students it once attracted because of its hard-work image and extensive Core requirements.

Because most elite students care more about where they're going to graduate and professional school, the new-look College may lose out in trying to recruit that minority of students who would be attracted by the old-look U of C, Abbott said.

"Behnke works in a world I don't know ... He may very well be right -- but I don't know how he knows it."

Deconstructing the viewbook
It's not just the photos that are new. A CWN analysis of the U of C's new viewbook, 'The Life of the Mind,' reveals striking changes in terminology. 'Life,' the principal recruiting material for high school seniors, abandons its traditional selling of the U of C College as a liberal arts College -- with a capital 'C' -- and invites applicants to be 'undergraduates' at a 'major research university' where they will study under the 'Chicago Plan.'
"core"	4
"Common Core"	0
"Chicago Plan"	5
"College students" or "students in the College"	0
"undergraduate"	22
"liberal arts"	1
"major research" e.g. "major research university"	3
Source: "The Life of the Mind"

Selling the Core short

The University of Chicago is most well-known among high school seniors for the Core. Perhaps many who do not apply to the College are scared off by the Core. But certainly many who do apply and matriculate do so precisely because of the Core.

The Core is not one factor among many which attract bright students to this school. It is the factor.

But the College's dean, John Boyer, and President Sonnenschein are determined to blend the Core in with other selling points: the city of Chicago, the Reynolds Club, and -- as the new viewbook puts it -- "regular visits by big-name bands." They think the Core can be finessed and blurred so that it fits in with what they want prospective students to think about the U of C.

When the reality of the Core's requirements was too hard to sell no matter how many glossy photos the professional marketers added, Boyer and company sought to whittle it down. Hence the "Chicago Plan."

Gone are the days when the University prided itself on supporting a liberal arts college within an international research university. Recruiters now sell the College with fun and games, hoping that high-schoolers will ignore the fact that they are among the most demanding, intelligent academics in the world in a neighborhood that gives them little opportunity for anything besides the life of the mind.

Boyer, Sonnenschein, and the faculty behind them are wrong. They are wrong because they believe the Core is what is keeping us from recruiting elite students. The Core is what allows us to enroll what elite students we do enroll despite the lack of fun. We can get by accepting nearly two-thirds of applicants because we attract applicants who want to come here instead of fun schools. Students looking for an easy ride, or who couldn't hack it in high school, don't want to apply here -- they're too afraid of coming here.

The class of 2002 will be the last class to know the Common Core. To them we say: have fun.

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